????海地是全世界最危險的國家之一，但是大衛?夏普卻并不介意在這里做生意。早在90年代初期，他就曾作為一名美國海軍陸戰隊員出現在“黑鷹墜落”時期的索馬里，并曾在波斯尼亞激戰正酣的時候被派駐到前南斯拉夫。

????今天，這位曾經的美國大兵已成長為一位40歲的企業高管，就職于海地的無線運營商Digicel Haiti公司。他現在可能正面臨著一生之中最艱巨的挑戰。2010年的海地大地震奪去了25萬多人的性命，而現在，夏普需要說服連銀行賬戶都沒有的海地人民（其中有很多人還是文盲）去迎接一個嶄新的數碼時代，接受他的公司所提供的移動金融服務，而且這種服務甚至比北美和歐洲的同類服務還要更復雜、更先進。

????這個任務現在進行得怎么樣了？夏普說：“我們一開始不太順利，但是海地人很喜歡手機?！闭f這話的時候，夏普正坐在山頂的辦公樓里，瘦削的身上寬松地罩著一件白色襯衫。從他的辦公室看出去，可以俯視晨霧籠罩下的太子港。他補充說：“他們寧可少吃一頓飯，也要給Digicel的賬戶充值。”

????Digicel在海地市場上發現了一塊大多數無線運營商根本不想碰的蛋糕，那就是移動錢包。從2006年以來，這家公司的TchoTcho移動錢包業務已經積累了70萬名客戶，而該公司網絡的用戶基數更是達到了450萬人。夏普說：“我們剛到海地的時候，只有5%的海地人有手機，而今天這個數字已經達到75%左右?！毕钠账诘墓臼荄igicel集團的一家子公司。Digicel集團的市值達25億美元，老板是愛爾蘭富豪丹尼斯?奧布萊恩。

????Digicel公司在海地的成功值得稱道，但也并不出人意料，因為它的母公司Digicel集團很擅于在全球某些最危險的地區做生意。這個集團在加勒比、拉美、南太平洋等地的30多個國家都有業務，其中就包括薩爾瓦多和巴布亞新幾內亞這樣的國家。

????盡管如此，恐怕仍然很少有人能料到，像海地這樣一個西半球最窮的國家、一個只有1,000萬人口的蕞爾小國，盡管連年遭遇自然災害、獨裁專政和軍事政變輪番蹂躪，竟然能讓Digicel公司賺到這么多錢。海地的Digicel公司去年營收入達4.39億美元，利潤達到了驚人的8,600萬美元。

????摩根大通（J.P. Morgan）行業分析師雅各布?斯坦菲爾德認為：“Digicel公司已經證明了它是一個強大、高效的運營商，有著很高的利潤。他們經常走在潮流的前沿，但他們不會去追求沒有利潤的技術或設備?！?/p>

????Digicel公司的未來甚至比現在更加光明。不僅是因為夏普身為Tcho Tcho團隊的領導制訂了一個計劃，到2014年3月要將Tcho Tcho的客戶群擴展到200萬人。實現這個目標的關鍵是要積極擴展它的代理網絡，特別是在加油站和雜貨店這些地方，因為用戶可以在這里把Tcho Tcho當取款機一樣使用。

????“我們是變革的一個重大的催化劑，”夏普說。他的娃娃臉似乎與他爭強好勝的雄心壯志有些不符。“我們來到這里之前，海地人要么把所有的錢裝在口袋里，要么藏在床墊底下。而現在他們第一次開始存錢了。”

????包括美國國際開發署（USAID）在內的許多觀察者都認為，Digicel的移動錢包是一項改變了行業面貌的服務，正在加速這個國家的經濟發展，同時幫助它轉型，而這個國家實在太需要一些好消息了。

????David Sharpe doesn't mind doing business in Haiti despite its reputation for being one of the world's most dangerous countries. Back in the early 1990s, the ex-U.S. Marine was in Somalia during Black Hawk Down and the former Yugoslavia during some of the bloodiest fighting in Bosnia.

????But now Sharpe, a 40-year-old executive with wireless provider Digicel Haiti, faces perhaps the toughest challenge of his life. As the country picks itself up from the 2010 earthquake that killed more than 250,000 people, he needs to convince its unbanked masses, many of whom are illiterate, to embrace the digital age with mobile financial services more sophisticated and advanced than anything available in North America or Europe.

????How is the mission going so far? "We had a bumpy start, but Haitians love their mobile phones," says Sharpe, sitting in his hilltop office overlooking the late-morning haze blanketing the capital Port-au-Prince. "They may not buy a meal, but they will top up their Digicel account," adds Sharpe, whose crisp white shirt hangs loosely over his lanky frame.

????Digicel has found the pulse of a market most wireless carriers would not touch with a 20-foot barge pole, accumulating 700,000 customers for its TchoTcho mobile wallet and a subscriber base of 4.5 million since 2006. "When we first arrived, only 5% of Haitians owned a mobile phone, today that number is more like 75%," says Sharpe, whose company is a subsidiary of the $2.5-billion Digicel Group, owned by Irish billionaire Denis O'Brien.

????Digicel's achievements in Haiti are commendable, but not exactly surprising given the parent company specializes in doing business in some of the most difficult and hazardous corners of the world. It has operations in more than 30 countries across the Caribbean, Latin America, and the South Pacific, including El Salvador and Papua New Guinea.

????Even so, few would have guessed that the poorest country of the Western Hemisphere -- a nation of 10 million that for decades has toiled under an oppressive combination of natural disasters, dictators, and military coups -- could end up being so lucrative for Digicel. The Haitian operation made an impressive $86-million profit on revenue of $439 million in 2012.

????"Digicel has proven itself to be a strong and efficient operator with high margins," says industry analyst Jacob Steinfeld with J.P. Morgan in New York. "They are usually at the forefront in terms of trends but will not pursue technologies or equipment that don't make sense financially."”

????The future looks even brighter, not least because Sharpe, head of the TchoTcho team, wants to more than double his customer base to 2 million by March 2014. The key to achieving that goal is an aggressive build-out of his agent network, mainly gas stations and grocery stores, which TchoTcho subscribers can use like bank machines.

????"We're a tremendous catalyst for change," says Sharpe, whose boyish face belies a super-competitive streak. "Before we came along, Haitians had all this money in their pockets and under their mattresses. They lived day to day. Now they're saving for the first time."

????Many observers, including the Washington-based U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), view Digicel's mobile wallet as a game-changer that is dramatically accelerating economic development and helping transform a country that desperately needs some good news.